Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent (B+) is a B-movie with a purpose. Even its title is a disguise for what it actually is. The movie follows a former professor played by a towering Wagner Moura who is caught in the political turmoil of the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, attempting to flee persecution and resist an authoritarian deceitful regime. Time jumps, all-out action scenes, even fantastical sequences punctuate a ‘70s stone-cold simmer. Leveraging the conventions of a pulp picture or drive-in style film helps some of the director’s headier themes rise to the surface. Moura is a charismatic and expressionistic vessel for the director’s intentions. It’s an engrossing film with carefree detours and hot takes on the way to profundity.